July 23, 2021

Dear Friends,
If you weren’t aware, our church building has seen quite a bit of use over the past 5 weeks!    Reach Beyond Mission has been using our space to run both in-person “day camp” style mission trips for local youth groups, and online “virtual” mission trips for churches from Kentucky to Connecticut. 
Local youth groups have served at the Round Rock Area Serving Center and right here on our property, as Reach Beyond Mission and United Christian Church partner to build a community garden.  Virtual groups are serving in their communities, with food banks, Habitat For Humanity, Meals on Wheels, and more.  Evenings for both in-person and virtual groups have consisted of small group discussions and presentations from speakers about advocacy and social justice work. 
While I love working with youth and seeing them grow through these mission trips, a huge source of joy for me during the summer is my role working directly with the college summer staff of Reach Beyond Mission.  Our staff this year is smaller, made up of five college students from Texas and California.  Three of the staffers are from Austin, two of them participated in the youth group at University Christian Church and one participated in our youth group.  All of them are very passionate about social justice work, and how their faith plays into what they choose to do to serve others. 
This Sunday, we will hear from two of our staffers about their experience in youth group, in church, on mission trips, serving on staff with Reach Beyond Mission, and how those experiences have shaped who they are today.  I invite you to come and hear them speak, whether in person, or online.  Hear how they are working towards a more just world, and why that matters to them.  And if you come in person, head outside after worship and check out the progress being made on our community garden!  We have one more group coming next week, and after that we will be calling on church volunteers to help us (alongside our youth group) plant, and maintain, our garden. 
Peace,
Meghan